Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1887-11-12
FIGURES



Washington special: Nothing gives
the average observer a more exalted OPP
( inion Of the size Of this great govern
ment than the annual reports which are
now s'in season Everywhere that you
( 90 in the departments you find sad-eyed
and weary looking men struggling with
long rows Of figures. Tables Of figures
as big rs small-sized blanket ornament
/ the desks and the weary compiler heayes
sigh OF relief when the hour hand
( points 10 and releases him from the
task. Footings which range up into the
billions are apt TO be tiresome. They
are the kind, too, that give you the
idea Of the bigness Of the government
( 1t is no uncommon thing for an auditor
or comptroller to show in his report
that the accounts examined or Iassed
upon or passing in some way through
his office, amount IN total footings to
couple of billions OF dollars. Not that
the amount of money actually involved
IS so much, but the complications OF
vouchers and accounts. and bills and
memoranda, and all that sort of thing
brings up the total on paper to some
thing enornn-s. OF course these ac-
counts require some very expert manip-
ulRfors Of figures. You find them every
where. There are some of them a few
Only-Uh no ike il, and they fairly reyel
in the wilderness of figures which make
other mems heads and hearts ache.
! There Is one man IN the treasury, act
uary of the treasury, he is called, who
grows fat on figures. They are his de-
light. He is always buried up TO his
ears and eyes in them, and has grown
SO fat in their contemplation that he
actually finds locomotion a burden.
You may see him waddling about the
treasury any day with bunch of paper
IN hand containing some startling reve-
lation of facts twisted ont of figures al
ways on hand. He can tell You at amo-
ment's notice not only the exact amount
of the national del {, but also the amOunt
OF it that each citizen owes, or how
much il would be per capita If divided
out, how much the interest Is day or
a year and how much per head of popu-
latiOn, how it compares with the debt of
other countries, and anything else you
may want to know or don't want to
thiuk about.
One of the most interesting OF the
treasury experts is a little man of the
name of Hall. Over forty years Of age,
he weighs about as many pounds as he
is years old. He has been for many
years in the department and is accounted
one Of the most valuable men in his di-
vision. Figures are his delight Perched
up on his high chair at a low desk, his
feet dangling, he works away all day at
his columns of figures, checking off the
errors that the full-grown men before
him have made. He is a yeritable
midget, but little larger than the little
people who make their living by exhib-
iting themselves in public. Nothing,
however, Is more distasteful to him than
the idea of being made ''show," and
he was so much panied by the fact that
many people visited his bureau especially
to stare at him, that the department Of
ticers put a stop to these visits. Per-
fectly formed, except to the usual size
of the race, with an intelligent face and
speaking eye, lie is fayorite with those
who know him. He is intelligent above
many of his fellow clerks on the tories
of the day, and in figures and the duties
of the Office, is a marvel. Personally he
Is pleasant In manner and voice, but is
ayerse to making many acquaintance,
as he keenly feels the peculiarities of
his person. He keeps his horse and
buggy, and delights in driving. He
goes to and from the treasury in the
street cars, and in covered car one day
was ''all broke up" by being picked up
by some motherly old lady and sat down
on her lap, in the supposition that he
was 9-year-old boy. On another oc-
casion he stumbled and fell in car,
breaking his arm. His delicate bones
break easily, but knit with surprising
rapidity. They have been broken over
forty times in his forty years of life.
His room where he boards, on Corcoran
street, is vertiable Liiputian bower,
with tiny bed, low chairs and ia de.